Thursday, February 20, 2014
Team USA
Quick Sound-Off: I think there's a difference between playing to win and playing not to loose. It seems like I'm seeing more examples of the latter in Team USA this year. It's a subtle but important difference. Speed Skating, Figure Skating, Half-Pipe, Hockey, the list goes on. Now I love the Olympics just as much as anyone else, some may say I'm a little fanatical every two years. I think Team USA is the strongest out there physically but mentally I think we are used to winning and think it's some sort of entitlement. Just the two cents of the Arm-Chair Olympian. How do we overcome???
Monday, January 6, 2014
New Uni's
Check out the new Summit Freewheeler's race kit! Freshened up quite a bit this year vs. the past 8 years of blue and white. The ladies and guys didn't like so much white on the uniform. Very hard to clean and very revealing once wet! Check these babies out:
Super excited to be riding through NE Ohio with these!
Friday, January 3, 2014
**Sigh** Riding a bike in my basement is not fun.
I live in NE Ohio, we have 10-12" of snow on the ground. It's currently 14 degrees outside but feels like 4 as the temperature slides down to a high, yes I said high, on Tuesday of -4 degrees. That means the warmest it will be all day is below zero. I don't mind riding in cold but this is ludicrous.
Soo...I rode inside last night. My workout consisted of a quick warm up, three 8-10 minute steady state intervals with 3 minutes rest in between and an every so brief cool down and stretch. Boring.
Here's a picture to explain how exciting this was:
Soo...I rode inside last night. My workout consisted of a quick warm up, three 8-10 minute steady state intervals with 3 minutes rest in between and an every so brief cool down and stretch. Boring.
Here's a picture to explain how exciting this was:
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Sponsors
Like I mentioned in my previous posts that I will be leading the mens team for Summit Freewheelers, here are our sponsors for 2014:
You should support these folks because they support biking and bike racing!
Monday, December 30, 2013
Summit Freewheelers
Hi Everyone,
As I may have mentioned, I've been riding with a local group of bike racers named Summit Freewheelers! For 2014 I will be the Men's Team Captain which totally kicks ass!
As I may have mentioned, I've been riding with a local group of bike racers named Summit Freewheelers! For 2014 I will be the Men's Team Captain which totally kicks ass!
The Summit Freewheelers is a bicycle road racing club
dedicated to developing members' road racing skills by providing
training and racing opportunities, training rides, and merchandise
discounts.
We sponsor the region-wide Races at the Lake (RATL) series in the spring.
- The Summit Freewheelers is located in Summit County (Akron), Ohio
- We are the area's leading bicycle racing club—the largest promoter and sponsor of bicycle racing in the area! We sponsor USAC sanctioned races.
- We have over 80 members including men and women ages 15 to 70, beginners to experts, and cyclists who just like to ride fast.
- Our club provides members with an opportunity to race, train, and just ride and shmooze with lots of other cyclists
Resolve
Life has been complicated over the past year, search for understanding and purpose can be time consuming. I've done a lot over the past year and I've let some things slip over the past year. In my search for meaning I've become a bit complacent at work and with my riding, not striving as much as I could or should. I've taken steps to remedy these things and my 2014 blogs will be about my journey to resolve. I'll talk about many things, mainly biking though. I hope not to bore you too much!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Getting back to it!
Well, it really has been awhile, almost a year to this day!
I've been doing a lot of riding, working and living over the past 12 months.
I joined a race development team here in Ohio called Summit Freewheelers and participated in my first road races ever! I did okay finishing mid-pack which was okay with me, especially without any sort of formal training plan! Here are some pics from the season:
Lot's of fun things this year with plenty more to come! I forgot how much I loved posting here vs. twitter or FB! More posts to come, I plan to layout my training program to help put me in the top 10 of the Cat 5 racers in NE Ohio!
I've been doing a lot of riding, working and living over the past 12 months.
I joined a race development team here in Ohio called Summit Freewheelers and participated in my first road races ever! I did okay finishing mid-pack which was okay with me, especially without any sort of formal training plan! Here are some pics from the season:
Lot's of fun things this year with plenty more to come! I forgot how much I loved posting here vs. twitter or FB! More posts to come, I plan to layout my training program to help put me in the top 10 of the Cat 5 racers in NE Ohio!
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Hey Lance!!!
How do you make is so easy yet so tough to love you???
Half of my brain sees an amazing human being that stands for something greater than cycling itself. As a cyclist myself I often find myself asking why should I love you???
If all of this doping is true than you are a liar. What's worse is that most of the second place finishers behind you in those 7 wins have already been accused of doping.WTF???
Why did you lie? Why did you do it?
Why do I find myself able to overlook this sometimes?
Why do I care?
Because I don't love you, I hate you for ruining the sport, something so simple to love. So pure in my heart. I hate you but I don't hate what someone like you can stand for. We still need a hero.
Half of my brain sees an amazing human being that stands for something greater than cycling itself. As a cyclist myself I often find myself asking why should I love you???
If all of this doping is true than you are a liar. What's worse is that most of the second place finishers behind you in those 7 wins have already been accused of doping.WTF???
Why did you lie? Why did you do it?
Why do I find myself able to overlook this sometimes?
Why do I care?
Because I don't love you, I hate you for ruining the sport, something so simple to love. So pure in my heart. I hate you but I don't hate what someone like you can stand for. We still need a hero.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Bras for a Cause
On my ride today, I came across 100 bras hanging on a pedestrian bridge along the hike and bike trail. Great sign of support for breast cancer awareness month!
Saturday, September 29, 2012
What do these things have in common?
Elmton Pizza in south Youngstown, birthday party with the Conricotes, a morning bike ride into the valley to watch the Akron Marathon pass through, Zac Brown Band in concert? Not much but it's making for a great weekend!
Side note, my BG has been out of control. Need to reign my sugars back in with some butt kicking workouts. Hopefully I can get another ride in tomorrow. I would be happy with a short 30 or 35 miler.
To come, my riding review from the Summer! Next year is it, I want to start racing on the road as well as off-road! Join me in checking out my journey from rider to racer. :)
Side note, my BG has been out of control. Need to reign my sugars back in with some butt kicking workouts. Hopefully I can get another ride in tomorrow. I would be happy with a short 30 or 35 miler.
To come, my riding review from the Summer! Next year is it, I want to start racing on the road as well as off-road! Join me in checking out my journey from rider to racer. :)
Friday, September 28, 2012
Akron Marathon!
Good luck to everyone running in the Akron Marathon tomorrow!
http://www.akronmarathon.org/
My plan is to ride up to the norther most point of the Marathon and cheer all of the peeps on bright and early!!!
http://www.akronmarathon.org/
My plan is to ride up to the norther most point of the Marathon and cheer all of the peeps on bright and early!!!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Battle of Turkey Run Race Report
Well, the good news is I've been riding and racing. The bad news is I had a big diabetes FAIL at this race.
The race took place in Zanesville, OH on Saturday at the privately owned S&S trails. You can ride the trails on Wednesday evening during the group rides. This race was HOT, in a bad way. 91 degrees with near 100% humidity, the course was sticky peanut butter mud due to the overnight deluge that passed through. The stats from the race were about 14.5 miles of course with 2000+ feet of climbing. The overall race was set up world cup style meaning short course with multiple laps, sport class had to do 4 laps.
Goals:
1. finish = complete
2. Not finish last = complete
3. not let my Wheels On Fire teammate Dan lap me = complete! :)
It was a good race, not my best but good. I had some diabetes issues, I spiked my blood glucose and when I stopped after the first lap to check and see what it was, I was out of test strips in my small meter that I carry with me, FAIL. I tried not to freak out, regained my composure and just rode. I thought about DNF'ing but talked myself out of it as I rode. I was alright for now and making it work. I felt like shit but I was pressing on to lap three and then lap four. I also managed to avoid cramps until the last 500 ft. of the course where I hopped off my bike and ran and then hopped back on for the obligatory photo finish! I grabbed some water, chatted with a few fellow racers and headed to my car to check my BG. It was 349, double fail.
Like I said thought, I survived and lived for the next race and I'm not going to beat myself up, if I was feeling better I could have smoked the poor conditioned course!
Here's a picture of me during the race, more to come hopefully!
The race took place in Zanesville, OH on Saturday at the privately owned S&S trails. You can ride the trails on Wednesday evening during the group rides. This race was HOT, in a bad way. 91 degrees with near 100% humidity, the course was sticky peanut butter mud due to the overnight deluge that passed through. The stats from the race were about 14.5 miles of course with 2000+ feet of climbing. The overall race was set up world cup style meaning short course with multiple laps, sport class had to do 4 laps.
Goals:
1. finish = complete
2. Not finish last = complete
3. not let my Wheels On Fire teammate Dan lap me = complete! :)
It was a good race, not my best but good. I had some diabetes issues, I spiked my blood glucose and when I stopped after the first lap to check and see what it was, I was out of test strips in my small meter that I carry with me, FAIL. I tried not to freak out, regained my composure and just rode. I thought about DNF'ing but talked myself out of it as I rode. I was alright for now and making it work. I felt like shit but I was pressing on to lap three and then lap four. I also managed to avoid cramps until the last 500 ft. of the course where I hopped off my bike and ran and then hopped back on for the obligatory photo finish! I grabbed some water, chatted with a few fellow racers and headed to my car to check my BG. It was 349, double fail.
Like I said thought, I survived and lived for the next race and I'm not going to beat myself up, if I was feeling better I could have smoked the poor conditioned course!
Here's a picture of me during the race, more to come hopefully!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Sorry, I need to quit saying that. Here's a damn update finally!
So I finished the Mohican 100K! I didn't just finish, I kicked it's ass! I was hoping to finish the 100K in 9-10 hours, I finished in 8:19:00 with room to grow next year. Thank you to all of the people who have supported me in my training and a special thanks goes out to Wheels On Fire Bicycle Service, my team sponsor.
I took the day off Friday to sleep in and finish getting myself ready. I packed everything up and went to a wonderful lunch with my girlfriend before heading out around 2:00. Loudonville is about 1.5 hours away and you can get stuck behind slow traffic on the back country roads. I stopped along the way and picked up Subway for dinner for some decent protein and carbs. I got down to Mohican Adventures to register and pick up my information pack at about 4pm. From there I went to check in at the Mohican River Inn, this Inn is the main reason why my gf did not want to attend this year. I brought my sleeping bag to sleep on top of the bed linens, we'll leave it at that! I chatted with some of the other folks racing, I would have been better if my blood sugar would not have spiked so high. It was painfully high, so I took the necessary insulin after I discovered my pump hose was blocked. I settled in for a long night of tossing and turning but my blood sugar finally came back to a normal level.
I think I'm babbling a lot so let's get to it. Got up at 5am to get ready, pack everything back up and drive my car to the finish line parking lot. Got the bike and myself ready and then rode the mile to downtown Loudonville for the start. Once at the start line the let us know the 100K folks would be starting 15min later than the 100milers to avoid bottlenecks. Off we went and I knew right off the bat I was going to kick ass. Weather was great and the sun was shinning, a far cry from the rivers of last years crazy race.
Everything said and done:
Official Time: 8:19:13 113th place out of 197 in my class (Winner finished in 4:55:57!) My goal next year is to shave 30 min off!
Bike time from cycle computer: 7:41:15
Miles: 63
Feet of climbing: 7373
Calories burned: 5835
Average HR 163
Temp: 93 and sunny
Picture of me crossing the finish line!
I took the day off Friday to sleep in and finish getting myself ready. I packed everything up and went to a wonderful lunch with my girlfriend before heading out around 2:00. Loudonville is about 1.5 hours away and you can get stuck behind slow traffic on the back country roads. I stopped along the way and picked up Subway for dinner for some decent protein and carbs. I got down to Mohican Adventures to register and pick up my information pack at about 4pm. From there I went to check in at the Mohican River Inn, this Inn is the main reason why my gf did not want to attend this year. I brought my sleeping bag to sleep on top of the bed linens, we'll leave it at that! I chatted with some of the other folks racing, I would have been better if my blood sugar would not have spiked so high. It was painfully high, so I took the necessary insulin after I discovered my pump hose was blocked. I settled in for a long night of tossing and turning but my blood sugar finally came back to a normal level.
I think I'm babbling a lot so let's get to it. Got up at 5am to get ready, pack everything back up and drive my car to the finish line parking lot. Got the bike and myself ready and then rode the mile to downtown Loudonville for the start. Once at the start line the let us know the 100K folks would be starting 15min later than the 100milers to avoid bottlenecks. Off we went and I knew right off the bat I was going to kick ass. Weather was great and the sun was shinning, a far cry from the rivers of last years crazy race.
Everything said and done:
Official Time: 8:19:13 113th place out of 197 in my class (Winner finished in 4:55:57!) My goal next year is to shave 30 min off!
Bike time from cycle computer: 7:41:15
Miles: 63
Feet of climbing: 7373
Calories burned: 5835
Average HR 163
Temp: 93 and sunny
Picture of me crossing the finish line!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Mohican 100K Time!
Hi Everyone,
I'm here, I'm alive and yes, I've been slacking! I have been training quite a bit for the Mohican 100K, no DNF this year! I'm taking the day off on Friday to get myself together and down to Loudonville, OH for the race. I'm really excited and pretty nervous too! I'm sure I'll do fine, I have more miles and quality miles at that in this year vs. last year. Last weekend I took the trip down to Mohican to ride the 25 mile loop and had plenty of energy in the tank to keep going. I was barely winded!
The weather looks beautiful, the bike is running great and I feel darn good! Time to start making my lists and try not to forget anything this year like I did last year. Who forgets the bladder for their camelbak???
More posts coming soon!
I'm here, I'm alive and yes, I've been slacking! I have been training quite a bit for the Mohican 100K, no DNF this year! I'm taking the day off on Friday to get myself together and down to Loudonville, OH for the race. I'm really excited and pretty nervous too! I'm sure I'll do fine, I have more miles and quality miles at that in this year vs. last year. Last weekend I took the trip down to Mohican to ride the 25 mile loop and had plenty of energy in the tank to keep going. I was barely winded!
The weather looks beautiful, the bike is running great and I feel darn good! Time to start making my lists and try not to forget anything this year like I did last year. Who forgets the bladder for their camelbak???
More posts coming soon!
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